Grant Holzhauer of Gamedaily writes: Downstream Panic! is the newest in a long line of puzzle games to hit the PSP. It feels like a conglomeration of LocoRoco and Plinko (a game featured on The Price is Right). In that game, contestants drop chips from the top of a board covered with pegs, hoping that the chips will bounce into the desired location at the bottom. Switch out fish for chips and throw in a variety of items to guide the flow of water, and that's this game in a nutshell.
Aesthetically, the game feels like LocoRoco, with a serenely cheerful ambiance. There is not much visual change from level to level, although you will experience the four seasons, which provides visual differentiation and a few game play nuances. The music and sound effects, too, seem to imitate LocoRoco, with chirpy noises emanating from the fish and a repetitive but youthful soundtrack. Everything animates well and looks incredibly sharp, and there are a few humorous movies scattered throughout that provide a semblance of a story.
Downstream Panic! is an unpredictable, fast-paced, tactical puzzle-action that places players in the position of a sea-creature preservationist out to save the world from a fantastic cyclone that has blasted the world's fish into the Earth's atmosphere.
Yes there are other fish in the puzzle game sea, but Downstream Panic's Lemmings-esque gameplay is hard to resist. Sheparding your fish back to the sea and using the game's cotierie of bombs, nets, fans, harpoons, and other tools to navigate through and influence the title's 80 environments is both fun and challenging.
If there's one drawback, it's that it often feels like there is only one solution to each board, which isn't a huge crime except that it puts a damper on the Free mode, where you're allowed to buy extra (albeit sometimes superfluous) equipment to help you in your cause.
Downstream Panic is perhaps the first sleeper hit of the year for the PlayStation Portable. Fans of the puzzle genre should really check the game out, as for a mere $30 it offers a plethora of entertainment and fun. Its addictive gameplay will make sure that you play through all 80 missions, and come back for more. Furthermore, it features a solid amount of depth, and its presentation is quite easy on the eyes. Pick this one up.
Graphics - 7.5
Gameplay - 8.5
Sound - 8.0
Control - 8.0
Replay Value - 8.5
Overall -
